Buzzing: I'm sitting 11.5ft away, dead center of the screen. It's not like I can merely hear a sound introduced that is the difference between dead silence and not silent. It's highly audible, annoying, and distinct. If I lean 10" to the left, the buzzing is practically non-existent and becomes merely the difference between dead silence and not silent. If I lean 10" to the right, the buzzing becomes even more apparent, all the way until about 2ft to the right, when it becomes a non-issue again. I'm hoping I'll get used to the buzzing to the point where it wont bother me.

Handshake: My Onkyo TX-SR707 hates my F8500. I have my F8500 connected to my Onkyo's HDMI OUT. I have my PC, Bluray, and Uverse connected to my Onkyo's HDMI IN's. Receiver is set to pass-through. It took me 20 minutes to get a picture on my TV of my computer. I tried 2 different HDMI cables, and what finally did it was randomly turning on and off my receiver multiple times in a row. I then noticed my computer's image was too dark, it was in some other pixel mode, so I went into AMD's Catalyst Control Panel and set it to RGB limited. After this the TV could not bring up the image again, and said could not find source or whatever. I had to turn my receiver on and off about 10 times for the image to come back on the screen. The picture settings at least looked good now that I changed it to RGB limited. I then switched to my Bluray player input on the receiver. No picture. Turned off and on my receiver numerous times to get it to come up. Started playing a movie and noticed I didn't have any Cinema Smooth control (was curious). My Bluray was set at 60p, not 24p, so I changed it to 24p but then again, the TV said it couldn't find the source. Turned receiver on and off more than 10 times for the picture to come back up. In fact, every time I switch to a new input on my Onkyo, it says no signal. Ridiculous. I'll probably get a new Denon receiver soon, if my Onkyo is any indication of how it is going to treat newer TV sets.

Black screen: On a completely black screen, my TV is not quite uniform. There are 2 horizontal whitish bands across the screen that can be seen. Enabling black optimizer 'dark room' helps significantly.

96hz/60hz: 60hz is definitely the way to go. 96hz introduced a little too much judder. After switching back and fourth for a while, and finally leaving it on 60hz, there were some artifacts that weren't there before I started switching back and fourth. Might be my bluray player.

The only movie I've completely watched so far is Run Lola Run, with some friends. It definitely isn't anything special video quality wise, but it did look spectacular. Colors seemed spot on. Watched a bunch of Uverse also, which looked very good (for Uverse). When watching Uverse, I can set Film Mode to off, auto1, or auto2. A few searches find some people using auto1 and some using auto2. Cnet said they couldn't get 1080i sources to deinterlace properly without using auto1. I don't think I notice a different between any of them for Uverse, is that normal? I inputted pie's and then cnet's color space/white settings, but when watching John Carter the landscape looked too yellow. I changed back to default and it looked better, but a bit too red. I then changed to warm1 which made it look slightly better again.

The Smart suite is great. I've tried out the Youtube, Pandora, TED, and Web Browser. Everything was smooth, fast, and great quality. It could almost replace my computer... which I use for music and youtube/hulu/etc. I also hooked up a wireless keyboard/mouse to the USB and found it worked great.

Over the next few days I plan on watching Drive, Tron, Prometheus, the Fountain, the Fall, District 9, and Children of Men.

The only thing that would make me want to return this TV is the buzzing... I have the ferrite core installed and a Panamax power conditioner but that doesn't seem to help.

For anyone using a receiver, have you run into this crazy handshake problem and if not, what receiver are you using?

Sorry to hear about your buzzing problem. It is amazing how TVs can differ. I totally cannot hear the buz even when I put my ear on the screen. Unless I move the TV and put my head behind the screen I do not hear anything and even that is very slight and I have to wait there for couple of seconds to catch it.

I used my digital cam now. A little bit better than the phone cam. Just for the sake of comparison and how every cam can give different result
Still in real the blacks more inky and the whites are more white

OK so you don't get light, but what about reflections. I guess that is from the camera angle and light in the room. I'm just trying to get an idea of what is causing those reflections in the dark area. The 8500 is still on short list if ZT doesnt work out lol

There is reflection on black color but that depends on what you have in front of the TV. I have my movie library shelves located there so you can see some of its reflection on the screen. I have also all the lights on. In a dim or dark room there are no reflections.

There is reflection on black color but that depends on what you have in front of the TV. I have my movie library shelves located there so you can see some of its reflection on the screen. I have also all the lights on. In a dim or dark room there are no reflections.

Right which is always the case. But with any light source is where the reflections come into play. Of course not a direct light source as that will definitely give a reflection and you cannot kill that. but with a ambient light source. Thanks though those pictures are telling me a lot in regards to what had me torn. Appreciate you posting them

Right which is always the case. But with any light source is where the reflections come into play. Of course not a direct light source as that will definitely give a reflection and you cannot kill that. but with a ambient light source. Thanks though those pictures are telling me a lot in regards to what had me torn. Appreciate you posting them

you can't go by a picture posted when i take pictures of my TV the pictures taken never look as good as they do in real life

I used my digital cam now. A little bit better than the phone cam. Just for the sake of comparison and how every cam can give different result
Still in real the blacks more inky and the whites are more white

I used my digital cam now. A little bit better than the phone cam. Just for the sake of comparison and how every cam can give different result
Still in real the blacks more inky and the whites are more white

Phone Cam:

Digital Cam:

Phone Cam:

Digital Cam:

Looks awesome Halimali! I hope my pictures from the beginning of the thread is what convinced you to buy even though its hard to see what it really looks like until you see it in person. Enjoy it because I still am

I know I will be killed now for saying this
But last night I watched two episodes of The Golden Girls (DVD) on the set. And they looked fine. However when I used the advanced options i.e. MPEG Noise Filter and Digital Clean View and set them both to auto it made a big difference to the picture quality. All the noise and artifacts were gone and it smoothed the picture in a huge way. I also applied the SOE i.e the Judder canceler and it even became smoother.
I feel for DVDs specially TV shows this will be very beneficial at least to me. I know many here hate the SOE and I do too for movies but I can see it makes a huge difference when it comes to SD material. Specially when the source is not that good. It improves it by making it smoother, so you get a cleaner looking picture minus the artifacts and the unwanted noise.

Hali, someone had previously commented that the Digital Clear View is so well implemented on this display, that it really helps and has no observable ill-effects.

Update:
- OK I heard the buzz . very very slight but not in normal condition. I had to move the TV in the cabinet and place my head right behind the screen and heard very very slight buzz
Now I know what is a plasma's buzz. Was curious to hear it just to know about it as this is my first plasma. However I cannot hear anything from the front of the screen even when I place my ear on the screen while the volume is on mute

- The TV is hot from behind specially when touched on the upper left, but I guess that is normal for a plasma

- Last night was watching The Queen on my queen and it looked magnificent
Been playing it on loop just to get more hours.

- One more thing, The bezel is plastic, Can't remember who said that but he was right. Cheap looking? No, Looking at it just looks it is the same as the Aluminum stand.

The camera doesn't show the beauty of the set.
The light that comes through the door is affecting the camera lens, In real that effect is totally not there and the blacks are inky and beautiful.

It looks pretty obvious to me that the outside lighting is altering the color balance of the camera. Somehow I think that Hali would notice the Queen's purple skin. Just a wild guess.

Looks awesome Halimali! I hope my pictures from the beginning of the thread is what convinced you to buy even though its hard to see what it really looks like until you see it in person. Enjoy it because I still am

Thanks my friend. You were the first one to post pics. And yes your pics gave me an idea of what I should expect. As you said in person this TV looks totally awesome.

Are there variations between the different sizes? I heard the bigger panels have more aggressive ABL, is this true? Also, where are most people getting their sets, or is that not to be discussed here? I'm just hearing if you don't break it in first with slides then the pixels will age unevenly and it'll look like crap a few weeks after getting it calibrated.

Are there variations between the different sizes? I heard the bigger panels have more aggressive ABL, is this true? Also, where are most people getting their sets, or is that not to be discussed here? I'm just hearing if you don't break it in first with slides then the pixels will age unevenly and it'll look like crap a few weeks after getting it calibrated.

so what do you think happens over the life of the panel w/ various content and watching movies where the pixels in the black bar region don't get exercised?

Are there variations between the different sizes? I heard the bigger panels have more aggressive ABL, is this true? Also, where are most people getting their sets, or is that not to be discussed here? I'm just hearing if you don't break it in first with slides then the pixels will age unevenly and it'll look like crap a few weeks after getting it calibrated.

You dont need to run the slides and can watch a varitey of content that will "bredak in" the set. The slides are part of a process that D-Nice uses to help limit the variables when posting his settings....Not aure about the ABL on different size sets....As far as where to purchase, the "price" payed shouldnt be talked about outside of the deals found forum, but there is a good mix of local and online retailers here....

Glad to hear your loving your F8500 although I never doubted you would... Enjoy

Thanks Pinger, But I wasn't sure too until I have seen it myself.
I didn't get what you mean by the mystery. I did not mean I will be killed for watching Golden Girls. No, love that show to the core. The killing I was referring to for using the SOE
I know many people here don't stand even the name itself, but SOE for shows is really good at least for the older ones.

Are you not concerned about too much heat castoff from the set being trapped in that cabinet enclosure?

No, because there is a large sufficient space behind it. The TV is not totally inside. It is around the middle inside the cabinet. In addition to this there are big holes made for the heat behind the cabinet from inside so heat should not make a probelm

Here in puerto rico we have a small frog that is all night singing but we dont even hear it if we are not searching for the sound.maybe is the same with the buzzing.my a/c buzz my fan buzz and my refrigerator buzz too.LOL

The Coqui is how you know you're in Puerto Rico. Whenever I want to imagine I'm there, I close my eyes and its the first part I imagine. It's far more soothing than Plasma buzz. It's a shame I hear they may all be gone soon.

The Coqui is how you know you're in Puerto Rico. Whenever I want to imagine I'm there, I close my eyes and its the first part I imagine. It's far more soothing than Plasma buzz. It's a shame I hear they may all be gone soon.

Just wondering if anyone is using a Harmony 900 or similar remote for this TV yet. I have it working for the most part except for a few functions that control the Smarthub features and was wondering if anyone is in the same boat as me. I had to create a specific activity for Smartbub (out side of 'Watch TV' to get the sounds and directional arrows to mimic the smart remote.

Buzzing: I'm sitting 11.5ft away, dead center of the screen. It's not like I can merely hear a sound introduced that is the difference between dead silence and not silent. It's highly audible, annoying, and distinct. If I lean 10" to the left, the buzzing is practically non-existent and becomes merely the difference between dead silence and not silent. If I lean 10" to the right, the buzzing becomes even more apparent, all the way until about 2ft to the right, when it becomes a non-issue again. I'm hoping I'll get used to the buzzing to the point where it wont bother me.

Handshake: My Onkyo TX-SR707 hates my F8500. I have my F8500 connected to my Onkyo's HDMI OUT. I have my PC, Bluray, and Uverse connected to my Onkyo's HDMI IN's. Receiver is set to pass-through. It took me 20 minutes to get a picture on my TV of my computer. I tried 2 different HDMI cables, and what finally did it was randomly turning on and off my receiver multiple times in a row. I then noticed my computer's image was too dark, it was in some other pixel mode, so I went into AMD's Catalyst Control Panel and set it to RGB limited. After this the TV could not bring up the image again, and said could not find source or whatever. I had to turn my receiver on and off about 10 times for the image to come back on the screen. The picture settings at least looked good now that I changed it to RGB limited. I then switched to my Bluray player input on the receiver. No picture. Turned off and on my receiver numerous times to get it to come up. Started playing a movie and noticed I didn't have any Cinema Smooth control (was curious). My Bluray was set at 60p, not 24p, so I changed it to 24p but then again, the TV said it couldn't find the source. Turned receiver on and off more than 10 times for the picture to come back up. In fact, every time I switch to a new input on my Onkyo, it says no signal. Ridiculous. I'll probably get a new Denon receiver soon, if my Onkyo is any indication of how it is going to treat newer TV sets.

Black screen: On a completely black screen, my TV is not quite uniform. There are 2 horizontal whitish bands across the screen that can be seen. Enabling black optimizer 'dark room' helps significantly.

96hz/60hz: 60hz is definitely the way to go. 96hz introduced a little too much judder. After switching back and fourth for a while, and finally leaving it on 60hz, there were some artifacts that weren't there before I started switching back and fourth. Might be my bluray player.

The only movie I've completely watched so far is Run Lola Run, with some friends. It definitely isn't anything special video quality wise, but it did look spectacular. Colors seemed spot on. Watched a bunch of Uverse also, which looked very good (for Uverse). When watching Uverse, I can set Film Mode to off, auto1, or auto2. A few searches find some people using auto1 and some using auto2. Cnet said they couldn't get 1080i sources to deinterlace properly without using auto1. I don't think I notice a different between any of them for Uverse, is that normal? I inputted pie's and then cnet's color space/white settings, but when watching John Carter the landscape looked too yellow. I changed back to default and it looked better, but a bit too red. I then changed to warm1 which made it look slightly better again.

The Smart suite is great. I've tried out the Youtube, Pandora, TED, and Web Browser. Everything was smooth, fast, and great quality. It could almost replace my computer... which I use for music and youtube/hulu/etc. I also hooked up a wireless keyboard/mouse to the USB and found it worked great.

Over the next few days I plan on watching Drive, Tron, Prometheus, the Fountain, the Fall, District 9, and Children of Men.

The only thing that would make me want to return this TV is the buzzing... I have the ferrite core installed and a Panamax power conditioner but that doesn't seem to help.

For anyone using a receiver, have you run into this crazy handshake problem and if not, what receiver are you using?

My F8500 had the same buzzing issue. Started out faint, then got louder, then just about disappeared. I have an Onkyo TX-SR805. I run my bluray player through the Onkyo. Originally, I could not get a picture on the F8500 when my hdmi cable was input to HDMI 1 coming out of the Onkyo. Changing inputs to HDMI 3, the ARC, I got a picture. After the F8500 and Onkyo made friends this way, the F8500 would display video from the Onkyo on any HDMI input. My bluray play automatically output 24fps/60hz. No display, sync issues whatsoever. I've found that HDMI handshake problems can be cured by turning off the receiver or display and power whatever one was turned off back on again. My receiver is an older model than yours, so I don't know why you would have problems. Give the buzzing on the F8500 time to subside. You have one of the best plasmas! Better in detail retrieval than the VT60. When I first watched The Hobbit and Tron I was "wowed" at the clarity of the panel. My wife and teenage daughters saw it too, so it was not just me.

Ok so I have been using my 64f8500 for 2 weeks now as a htpc monitor and for regular viewing. The camera tucked away message is annoying and there is something up with the way the tv interacts with my pioneer vsx-53 reciever. But thats the only complaints I have. There hasnt been any image retention and I have had a couple of 3 hour gaming session's. Very pleased with this set.

The 5020FD was not overscanning. It was in dot-by-dot mode which is the same as Samsung''s Screen Fit mode. I have no idea what 'border' you're talking about. I',m not seeing a border. Again, I'm geting a black row of 'blank' pixels on the top of my screen when watching any content from my DirecTV HR23-700. I know someone with a 64" F8500 and a DirecTV HR24 and he does not have this problem in Screen Fit mode. Therefore, I assume my issue has something to do with my DVR and I'd like to see if others with similar setups have seen the issue.